Get to know your privacy settings
Have you ever read posts in your Facebook feed that seemed a little too private for your liking?
I know I have. I thought it was cute at first when my best friends husband was lamenting his love for her for all to see. But then it got a little risque, and I got very uncomfortable.
I called her immediately and told her what was happening. Needless to say she was mortified and I ended up talking to him at length about managing his privacy settings.
Perhaps some people do want their friends and the friends of their friends to see all of their activity, but I bet that many don't. And they probably don't know how public they're business really is.
While my best friend had a few minutes of embarrassment and has long gotten over it, that is probably not the case for the professor who posted these two messages on Facebook:
- "Does anyone know where to find a very discreet hitman? Yes, it's been that kind of day ..."
-
"had a good day today, DIDN'T want to kill even one student :-). Now Friday was a different story."
Well, thanks to her privacy settings, she is now on administrative leave. Some of the very students she was referencing happen to be "friends of her friends" and guess what? They felt threatened by those posts . She thought that not accepting their friend requests was enough. It wasn't.
Yes, Facebook did make some changes that required users to go back in and adjust their settings but if you missed that news, you too could be vulnerable.
All the more reason to get to know your privacy settings.
You can read more about the story referenced in this post on Inside Higher Ed.
Comments
SO important to remind people of still, especially when it comes to instilling responsible social media habits in younger generations who are yet to enter the workforce.
This might sound lame, but I still don't trust the privacy settings on Facebook (or rather I don't trust myself to make sure they are set correctly) which is why I would never post anything that I think might be misconstrued. I also untag myself from pictures.
I know the internet is forever and maybe once this generation is in a position of power it won't be such a big deal to have some flippant off-mark comment or photos online of drinking, but while recruiters search your social profile and judge you for it and line between work friends and real friends is becoming blurrier by the day, I am still overly cautious.
You're right @Kathleen. And time has shown that it is not just the young folks making bad choices or failing to understand the ramifications of public comments.
@Allison, it does not sound lame at all. You know yourself better than anyone else and if you feel that checking privacy settings isn't something you can do regularly then your move makes perfect sense.
I have pretty tight settings on Facebook pics and videos too.
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